Quandela, a leading French company in quantum photonics, raised €15 million on November 16 from Deeptech investment fund Omnes Capital, the Defense Innovation Fund managed by Bpifrance and subscribed by the Defense Innovation Agency (AID), and the Quantonation fund specializing in quantum technologies. This fundraising should enable Quandela to make available the first complete photonic quantum computer and to open its access on an online Cloud platform as early as 2022.

Earlier this year, Emmanuel Macron presented the €1.8 billion plan to make France a world leader in quantum. It was based on the report “Quantum, the technological shift that France will not miss” by MP Paula Forteza.

The challenge is great for France in the face of American and Chinese competitors who have taken the lead. Thanks to the excellence of French research, France can position itself among the leaders. All the countries that have entered the quantum race have plans to create a quantum computer, but it is the French company Quandela that has announced the availability of the first complete photonic quantum computer.

Quandela was founded in 2017 by Pascale Senellart (research director at the Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies of the CNRS and the University of Paris-Saclay and 2014 CNRS silver medalist), Valérian Giesz (engineer and PhD in quantum optics), and Niccolo Somaschi (PhD in semiconductor nanotechnologies). In 2020, the company developed Prometheus, the first photonic qubit generator with broad application areas including quantum cryptography, quantum computers or quantum sensors. On this topic, Valerian Giesz, CEO and co-founder of Quandela, said:

“What limits the possibility of performing quantum computing with a photonic device is optical losses – i.e. lost photons – which occur mainly at the emitter. But our single-photon emission technology is very efficient. This is our strength, which underpins our ambitions in computing.”

Quandela is one of the French leaders in quantum technology, which should enable unprecedented computing power. In this technology, the basic building block is not bits, but qubits (quantum bits).

The bits of a standard computer can only take 2 values: 0 or 1, the qubits can be in several values at the same time. With this superposition, it is possible to carry out several calculations simultaneously and thus achieve algorithms capable of solving the most complex problems. Ultimately, the goal is to create the universal quantum computer, which could process gigantic masses of data and perform operations far beyond our imagination.

A quantum computer for 2022

It took more than 20 years of research at the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology to develop this unique technology. It has made it possible to develop an entanglement system based on a chain of single photons contained in an optical fibre loop. Quandela offers companies and research centers various components (eDelight, 6-DMX, QShaper, QFiber, etc.), the assembly of which has led to the creation of a prototype quantum computer based on a high flux of single photons, available on the Cloud in 2022, to promote broad access to research and computing resources.

Valerian Giesz explained:

“In just a few years, Quandela has established itself as a key player in the development of photonic quantum computing. We are collaborating with several European universities in the framework of the European project ‘Photonic quantum sampling machine (Phoqusing)’, launched in September 2020. We also sell our components to companies and research centers all over the world: Italy, Australia, Austria, the Netherlands… This fundraising will allow us to accelerate in the structuring of the team and the investment of new equipment to achieve our goals with a first step: the availability in the cloud of the first complete optical quantum computer in 2022.”

Quandela is therefore now well positioned on the quantum market thanks to its technology based on a single photon source of unparalleled quality and efficiency that allows its computer to grow in power more quickly, without suffering the brakes inherent in other technologies (ions, superconduction).

Niccolo Somaschi, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Quandela explains:

“Given the recent technological advances in the development of solid-state quantum light emitters, it is time to explore the full potential of this technology for large-scale quantum computing. Quandela is one of the international leaders in the technology, with all the resources to boost further developments and integrate the blocks needed to build computing platforms in a modular way.”

The Omnes fund led this round of financing. For Fabien Collangettes, Quandela board member:

“Quandela brings together a world-class team and proposes a major technological breakthrough in the field of photonic quantum computers. Our financial support will enable the company to take on major new technological challenges and position itself as a European leader in the race for quantum advantage.”

For Charles Beigbeder, founder of the Quantonation investment fund, in Quandela’s capital since 2020:

“Quandela is part of this very small club of European deeptech companies that can revolutionize our technological universe. By capitalizing on the properties of the elementary constituent of electromagnetism, the photon, Quandela wants to produce highly scalable and high-performance quantum processors.”

The Fonds Innovation Défense, managed by Bpifrance, has also provided support to Quandela. Nicolas Berdou, Investor at Bpifrance, states:

“After supporting Quandela’s early stages of development via our innovation funding schemes, it is a real source of pride to support the company’s growth with the Defence Innovation Fund. This investment marks our collective ambition to participate in the growth of quantum technologies, to make France a major player in this sector of the future.”

Translated from Levée de fonds de 15 millions d’euros pour le premier ordinateur quantique de Quandela